Zone Star Hall Sued
he Dead Zone star Anthony Michael Hall is being sued for more than $612,000 by the show's insurer, which says he failed to disclose a mental illness, the Associated Press reported.
In the negligent misrepresentation lawsuit, Chubb Insurance of Canada claims production of the series in Vancouver, B.C., was disrupted when Hall was admitted to St. Paul's Hospital on May 11, 2001, following an episode of "bipolar affective disorder depression with psychotic features," the wire service reported.
Hall was discharged from the hospital a day later and returned to his home in New York, according to documents filed last week in British Columbia Supreme Court, the AP reported. Hall had stopped taking his prescribed medication for the illness, previously known as manic depression, according to the court filing.
After filming on the USA Network show was delayed until Aug. 14, 2001, the production company, Lions Gate Film Corp., submitted an insurance claim and received $912,042.28 in Canadian dollars, which Chubb is trying to recover, the AP reported.
Lawyers told the AP that Hall would respond to the lawsuit. No trial date has been set.
USA Network is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. The Dead Zone also airs on the SCI FI Channel.
Moynahan Joins I, Robot
ridget Moynahan has signed on to star opposite Will Smith in I, Robot, the upcoming film adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic SF short-story collection, Variety reported.
Moynahan will portray a psychologist in the distant future with a specialty in robot psyches, who must aid a detective (Smith) investigating a murder supposedly committed by a robot.
Alex Proyas (Dark City) is directing the Fox movie from a script by Jeff Vintar, with rewrites by Hilary Seitz and Akiva Goldsman, the trade paper reported.
Production should begin in May, with an eye to a July 2, 2004, release date. That date may change, as Sony just announced that it will launch The Amazing Spider-Man on the same day.
Labor Dispute Threatens Potter III
rew members threatened to walk off the job in a labor dispute at three British film studios where Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is currently in production, the Zap2it Web site reported.
The workers have given the studios one week's notice before walking out in a dustup over wages.
A walkout could affect the production of the third Harry Potter, which is shooting at Leavensden Studios in Hertfordshire and Shepperton Studios in West London. Other projects possibly affected by the strike include the live-action film based on the British Thunderbirds TV series, which is shooting at Pinewood Studios.
Rowling Has A Son
arry Potter author J.K. Rowling gave birth to a baby boy over the weekend in Scotland, the Reuters news service reported.
David Gordon Rowling Murray was born March 23 at the New Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, according to Rowling's spokeswoman Nicky Stonehill.
Rowling already has a 10-year-old daughter from her first marriage. She married her second husband, Neil Murray, two years ago, Reuters reported. The birth comes just three months before the much-anticipated fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which will be published June 21.
Ratner Mulls Dark Materials
irector Brett Ratner told SCI FI Wire he wants to helm the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
Playwright Tom Stoppard is writing the screenplay for New Line Cinema. "There's not even a script, so it's a ways away, but New Line, the studio that I'm in business with, is developing it," Ratner said in an interview. "I'm just hopeful."
The trilogy, which begins with The Golden Compass, centers on an 11-year-old girl who tries to rescue her best friend from kidnappers. Along the way, she encounters witches, talking bears and a truth-telling compass. "It's kind of like Harry Potter [or] Lord of the Rings," Ratner said.
Ratner Knows Jack
irector Brett Ratner told SCI FI Wire that he's considering directing a live-action version of the Cartoon Network series Samurai Jack as his next project, despite reports that he'll helm a third Rush Hour movie first.
"It's all about when the scripts come in," Ratner said in an interview. "If Samurai Jack comes in before Rush Hour 3, than maybe it'll be that."
Ratner quit the upcoming fifth Superman film this month, reportedly in part so that he could move on to other projects.
Ratner added that Samurai Jack appeals to him because of a mythology that rivals that of the most popular SF universes. "I love things like Star Wars that have history and mythology and storytelling," Ratner said. "It's just a great character."
Ratner: Superman Still Flies
rett Ratner, who quit the job as director of the upcoming Superman movie, told SCI FI Wire that the film still has a future, even though he left after months of development.
"I hope so, [because] its' a great script," Ratner said in an interview.
Ratner quit the much-publicized fifth Superman movie after his option expired this month, and in a statement he attributed his departure in part to the difficulty finding a lead actor.
But this week, Ratner declined to comment on rumors that his departure was spurred in part by a clash with Superman producers, adding that he left simply because he wanted to make other films. "The longer it took, the longer I was going to be on the film, because I'm the only person that's on the film all the way through release," he said. "I just had to make a choice. It was a very hard choice to make, believe me, because I was very passionate and excited about it."
Goyer To Go Batty?
riter David Goyer (Blade and Freddy vs. Jason) will draft a new Batman script, sources told Variety.
Goyer's new take on the comic superhero will be based on an idea by Insomnia director Christopher Nolan, not the previously reported Batman vs. Superman and Batman: Year One stories, the trade paper reported.
Warner Brothers executives could not be reached for comment on the report, and Goyer's representatives at the William Morris Agency declined to comment on the negotiations, the trade paper reported.
Spidey 2 Bumped To July 2004
he release date for the upcoming second Spider-Man movie has been bumped back to July 2, 2004, from its original May 7 date, Variety reported.
That puts it into direct competition with Will Smith's I, Robot, which is also slated for that date, the trade paper reported.
The upcoming vampire hunter film Van Helsing took advantage of the change by staking out the vacated May 7 slot, the trade paper reported.
The Spidey move stemmed from a delay in shooting the sequel, which was pushed from January to mid-April to accomodate star Tobey Maguire's schedule shooting Seabiscuit, which wrapped in February, the trade paper reported.
Goldman Conjures Up Shazam!
illiam Goldman has been hired to adapt DC Comics' classic series Shazam! for New Line Cinema, Variety reported.
Shazam! tells the story of Billy Batson, who transforms into Captain Marvel, the world's mightiest mortal, when he says the name of the ancient wizard Shazam.
Shazam! is slated for a Christmas 2004 or summer 2005 release, the trade paper reported. Avowed comic fan Goldman, who most recently adapted Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, won Oscars for 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and 1976's All the President's Men.
A live-action version of Shazam! ran on CBS' Saturday morning schedule from 1974-'78, the trade paper reported.
Preston Fleshes Out Cat's Mom
elly Preston—who plays the mother of two kids in the upcoming Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat—told SCI FI Wire that she had to create her character from scratch.
In the beloved children's book, the mother is only a leg, "and that's all you see," Preston said in an interview. In the live-action film, "I'm the whole body behind it," she said. "I'm the actual mom. There is no backstory [in the book], [so] you make it up. You do you own work."
Preston's character won't interact with the titular cat, played by Mike Myers, who arrives to wreak havoc after she leaves her kids home alone. "I'm a single mother and a little harried getting this party going for this evening," she said. "[I say,] 'Don't mess the house, I have to go out for a second.' I leave, and all hell breaks lose."
The film adds a love interest for mom, in the form of a next-door neighbor. "I have this suitor next door, Alec Baldwin, who is hilarious," she added. "He is just so funny to work with. Because Mike and I didn't have scenes together, I mostly spent it with Alec, and he was really wonderful." The Cat in the Hat opens Nov. 21.
Putting Myers' Cat In Hat
teve Johnson, prosthetic and animatronic effects artist on the upcoming fantasy film Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, told SCI FI Wire that the cat makeup will be more expressive than Rick Baker's design in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Johnson's makeup transforms star Mike Myers into the titular feline. "The Grinch is basically a foam rubber mask," Johnson said in an interview. "He's got a fully sculpted face, whereas Mike's makeup is in pieces, very small, and just accentuates the areas we wanted to transform him subtly into a cat."
The overall effect of the piecemeal makeup is to allow Myers' own look to show through, Johnson said. "Mike's obviously a very expressive guy, and we really worked hand in hand with him," he said. "We did 30 tests to create the final look in the film, and the real goal was keeping Mike's character recognizable to audiences, but allowing him to perform through this thing so it didn't look like a makeup." Cat in the Hat, based on the children's book of the same name, opens Nov. 21.
Thurman Co-Signs Paycheck
ma Thurman will co-star opposite Ben Affleck in Paycheck, an SF movie based on a Philip K. Dick short story, to be directed by John Woo, Variety reported.
Thurman will play Rachel, a scientist.
Paycheck will shoot in British Columbia soon for release at the end of the year, the trade paper reported.
Paycheck centers on an electrician (Affleck) who wakes up to discover his employer has erased his memory of the past two years.
Amiel Breaks Ground In Core
on Amiel, who directed the subterranean action-adventure film The Core, told SCI FI Wire that his film goes deeper than Jules Verne's SF classic Journey to the Center of the Earth, with which it shares a similar premise.
"What's so interesting is that nobody has actually thought to make a movie about that, or tell a story about that, for 150 years," Amiel said in an interview. "The movie that was made in 1959 was based on a story that was over 150 years old. ... Well, I think it's time to say, 'You did a great job, Jules, for what you knew then, [but] it's time to set the record straight.'"
Amiel added that he welcomed the opportunity to expand Verne's concept with modern science and technology. "It was part of the challenge and also part of what made this project so exhilarating to do," he said. "We really felt we were going where no movie had really gone before, a real journey to a real center of this planet. And we really did try to use every bit of science that was available to us to make that journey feel real."
Amiel said that he hopes that audiences will look past the special effects and fantastical elements of the film to the relevant message that's just beneath the surface. "[It's] about heroism, about our use and abuse of the planet, and about, in a sense, something that we see so little of—but, God, how much I wish we'd see more of—that in the face of great disaster, ... the world [can] come together, pool its resources, its ingenuity, and pull itself back from the brink of catastrophe by the use of a common endeavor. To me that feels like a theme that couldn't be more timely." The Core opened March 28.
Eckhart Delved Into Core
aron Eckhart, who stars in the SF disaster film The Core, told SCI FI Wire that he's not concerned about the timing of the film's release, in the midst of the Iraq war.
"It's a great entertainment movie for the whole family," Eckhart said in an interview. "Why not? It's leaving our outer problems behind and going in, deep within, to our own souls and solving all of our problems."
The story follows an expedition of scientists and astronauts as they travel to the center of the Earth to repair an anomaly in the planet's core before it causes a global catastrophe. Eckhart said that he took current events into consideration when he signed up for the project. "I thought that the world was so just heavy that I thought I should go do a movie that was more heroic," he said.
Eckhart added that he's gratified that the film is finally being released after a long delay. "Primarily, I feel like we sweated and bled for this movie, and, like every movie I do, I want people to see it, because I think it's worth seeing. And I think [director Jon Amiel] did a great job and all that, so I want it to be successful for that reason." The Core opened March 28.
Wimmer Lights Up Ultraviolet
creen Gems has pre-bought worldwide distribution rights to Ultraviolet, a female-driven futuristic action thriller written and to be directed by Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium), Variety reported.
The $30 million movie tells the story of a woman caught in a civil war between the government and a subculture of disease-modified humans in whom speed, strength and intelligence are magnified, the trade paper reported.
Production is slated to begin this fall in Shanghai. Lucas Foster, who last teamed with Wimmer as producer on Equilibrium, will produce Ultraviolet.
Dane Conjures Charmed Role
ric Dane, who joins the cast of The WB's witch series Charmed, told TV Guide Online that spark will fly between his character and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano).
"We have somewhat of a combative start," Dane told the site. "But there's chemistry, and it develops into a relationship. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and then I leave. They're not killing me, though. ... The door is left open, just in case."
Dane begins his four-episode stint on Charmed on March 30, playing Jason Dean, the new owner of the Bay Mirror newspaper. Phoebe's half-demon husband Cole (Julian McMahon) met his end in the show's 100th episode. But Dane said that he doesn't feel any pressure. "That's probably because I had no idea about [McMahon]," he said. "Nobody told me I was replacing anyone." Charmed airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Galactica III Renamed
DV Software Entertainment announced that it has changed the name of its upcoming Imperium Galactica III PC game to Galaxy Andromeda, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The company also launched a new official Web site for the game.
The company said that the title, originally conceived as a sequel, is strong enough to stand on its own.
Galaxy Andromeda is being developed by the Hungarian company Mithis Games. It is a space-themed real-time strategy game scheduled for release towards the end of this year.
Kennedy Ready To Don Mask II
amie Kennedy is in preliminary talks to star in New Line Cinema's Son of the Mask, a sequel to the 1994 Jim Carrey fantasy comedy film The Mask, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Larry Guterman is directing the film, which is expected to shoot in the summer while Kennedy is on hiatus from his WB TV series The Jamie Kennedy Experiment.
Son of the Mask would follow an aspiring cartoonist who is not ready for fatherhood, but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki. Lance Khazei wrote the script, with rewrites by Rob McKittrick and Tom Gammill and Max Pross.
Burns Hears Thunder
dward Burns, star of the upcoming SF film A Sound of Thunder, told SCI FI Wire that he considered the time-travel movie an unlikely project for himself, as he'd never read the Ray Bradbury short story on
which it's based.
But though Burns said he wasn't much of a literary SF fan, "it was one of those genres that I like as a moviegoer. So when the opportunity came up to be in the film and to work with Ben Kingsley—and because people had told me that the short story
was one of Bradbury's best—I thought, 'Huh, all right.' ... And it turned out to be a great experience."
Burns plays Dr. Travis Ryer, a guide with Time Safari Inc., a company owned by Charles Hatton (Kingsley), which uses time-travel technology to enable its clientele to hunt for dinosaurs in the past. When rules are broken and the future is altered, Ryer must team with Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), creator of the time-travel technology, to save the day.
"The short story ends when the group comes back and realizes they've screwed with evolution," Burns said. "So now 2038 Chicago is something of a rain forest. Basically, that's the end of the movie's first act, and the next hour is spent trying to fix the wrongs that we've done."
Burns said he spent four months acting in front of a blue screen. "It was a very, very different experience for me," he said. "It was one of
those things where I can't wait to see the movie in order to see the
environment they've created around us." Peter Hyams (TimeCop) directed A Sound of Thunder, which is tentatively scheduled for release in spring 2004.
BBC Ghosts Hits Web
he BBC announced the launch of Ghosts of Albion, a Web-based animated supernatural horror series created and written by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden and directed by Benson.
Benson is best known as Tara on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Golden has written several Buffy comics and novelizations.
Ghosts of Albion is a tale of demons, vampires and ghosts set in 19th-century England. The series' Web site launched March 27, with the first of five 12-minute episodes.
Wolfenstein Tourney Coming
ctivision, NVIDIA Corp., eVGA.com Corp. and id Software have teamed up with the Online Gaming League to host the Return to Castle Wolfenstein "Battle on the Beachhead II" tournament.
Gamers from across North America will hit the battlefield in a struggle for frontline domination and prizes, including NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics cards from eVGA.com, limited-edition RTCW prints signed by id Software, Nintendo GameCubes, Nintendo Game Boy Advances and hundreds of games, the companies announced.
The tournament will run from April 7 through May 12 on the Web. To register, captains can sign up their six-person teams between March 31 and April 5. A total of 64 teams will be chosen throughout the week.
Browne Grapples With Graboids
ictor Browne, who plays Tyler Reed on the upcoming SCI FI Channel
original show
Tremors: The Series, told SCI FI Wire that the show's Graboids, Shriekers and AssBlasters would come to life through a combination of computer graphics and puppetry.
"We have all kinds of interaction with the monsters," Browne said in an interview. "I'm firing some serious weapons at these creatures. Every show it's something different, and we're up close and personal with them."
Browne added that the creature effects include a 7-foot Graboid puppet. "The guys who do the special effects are just incredible," he said. "They make it very real for you, as well. I've had my jeans, my pants, ripped and my leg cut just from having some of the teeth on the tentacles getting at me."
But Browne said that the show also makes use of a lot of computer graphics, which is a challenge for the actors. "They put a big screen in front of you, and you have to act to an imaginary image," he said. "That's where your schooling comes in."
In the show, Reed becomes the unlikely partner of monster hunter Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). "Burt is the antisocial military guy, and I'm the very clever action hero," Browne said. "We fight these monsters and together keep Perfection, Nev., safe. Burt's kind of leery at first about a new kid coming to town and taking over what he normally does, but once he sees that he can do it, Burt trusts him." Tremors: The Series premiered with two back-to-back hourlong episodes, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT March 28.
Tremors Goes Deep
.S. Wilson, co-writer and co-producer of the upcoming SCI FI Channel
original show
Tremors: The Series, told SCI FI Wire that the show offered him the chance to develop ideas left out of the film series on which it is based.
"We're able to do a lot of ideas that never made
it into the movies, because the movies always started out bigger than their budgets," Wilson said in an interview. "We cut many things from the movies, so there are literally ideas in the first few episodes of the series that were in the scripts for Tremors 2 and 3, but never made it into those movies for budgetary reasons."
Wilson, who co-wrote and co-produced the original Tremors film in 1990, added that a series allows for the deepening of the franchise's characters. "That's what drives television anyway," he said. "You come back every week to see what's going on with people you invite into your home." But, he added, "we have had to increase the strangeness factor of our little valley, Perfection Valley, in order to provide a broader pallet of creatures. That will start unfolding in the first six episodes."
Tremors: The Series, starring Michael Gross as Burt Gummer, premiered with two back-to-back hourlong episodes, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT March 28.
Smallville Creators Re-Up
l Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators of The WB's hit Smallville series, signed a two-year deal with Warner Brothers Television to continue running the show, Variety reported.
Gough and Millar also agreed to work exclusively for WBTV in development, but plan to focus their small-screen work on Smallville, while continuing to write feature-film screenplays, the trade paper reported.
The WB has already picked up Smallville for its third season. Smallville airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Gough and Millar are working on a movie script for the upcoming comic-book adaptation Iron Man for New Line, the trade paper reported.
Blade III Ready To Roll
lade film writer David Goyer told the Comics2Film/CBR News Web site that the third chapter in the vampire franchise should roll cameras later this year.
The script for Blade III has been turned in, and Goyer told the site that it was "very well received."
The next job is to hire a director, which may or may not be the screenwriter himself, Goyer added. "We're talking about the director situation now," he said. "But however it pans out, we will probably be shooting by September."
Hu Ready For Jade
elly Hu told E! Online that she's eager to jump into another comic-book adaptation after her turn as Lady Deathstrike in the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2.
She's in the running to play Jade, a 4,000-year-old vampire running an extended crime family in China.
"I really, really hope that it comes through, because I'm really excited about it," Hu told E!'s Ink Tank column. "It's in development at the moment, but I don't think I can start talking about it, because anything could happen."
Ronnie Yu (Freddy vs. Jason) is slated to direct Josh Olsen's script, with Gale Anne Hurd (The Hulk) producing.
Cosmonaut Launches At Warner
ace Neufeld will develop and produce the SF thriller film Cosmonaut for Warner Brothers, Variety reported.
Based on the best-selling Australian novel by Peter McAllister, the film will tell the story of the first murder in space, aboard the international space station.
Mace Neufeld Productions' director of development, Steven Rubenstein, set the project up, the trade paper reported. Aditya Sood, vice president of production for Warner, is the executive overseeing the film, which is being developed with Ted Tennenbaum, who will also take a producing credit.
Fox Buys Pet Store
wentieth Century Fox has picked up writer Eric Barker's spec fantasy script Pet Store, which Adam Shankman is attached to produce through his newly formed Offspring Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The live-action film follows a group of talking animals, who need to save their pet store from being foreclosed on by an evil bank, the trade paper reported.
Shankman is producing the project with his Offspring producing partner Jennifer Gibgot, the trade paper reported. Matthew Meisel is co-producing.
Last year, Barker sold the spec Get Lost to Revolution Studios.
SF Authors Judge Scripts
F novelists Greg Bear and Orson Scott Card and producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines) have been named as judges of the upcoming "Slam Fi" screenwriting competition, organizers announced.
The competition is sponsored by the Slamdance film festival, in partnership with Santa Monica, Calif.,-based Xeolux Entertainment. Sponsors also include Bushnell, Cinefantastique, Asimov's and Analog.
The competition is open to short scripts, short stories and feature-length scripts. The final deadline for submissions is
April 30.
Lost Possibly Found Again?
.S. Wilson, co-writer of the tentatively titled Lost in Space: The Journey Home, told SCI FI Wire that the proposed Lost in Space television reunion movie and backdoor pilot might still come together, despite the death last November of original series star Jonathan Harris.
"It was derailed a little bit, and we were all deeply saddened by the loss of Jonathan Harris, because he was written into it in a big way," Wilson said in an interview. "The producer there and the engine behind that project, Kevin Burns, is talking with me and my partner, Brent Maddock, about ways to revise it now to deal with the fact Jonathan is no longer here."
Wilson added, "We've got a really good take on what to do, and once Brent and I get any time at all, we're possibly going to do a revision
and get it back on track. Everybody's still very excited about it. Reunion shows are very, very popular on television right now, and there's a lot of interest in it for that reason alone." Wilson said that Burns has managed to keep the original cast members interested and involved.
The proposed television movie would bring the Jupiter II crew home and, in the process, strand a new group of people in space. Wilson said that Burns came to him in part because of his work on the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original show Tremors: The Series. Burns told Wilson, "'Here's the problem: How do you find the
original people and then end up lost yourself?' That was one of the bigger problems Brent and I solved in the script. But I will maintain the secrecy of that in case it ever gets made."
Tremors: The Series, starring Michael Gross as Burt Gummer, premieres
with two back-to-back hourlong episodes, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT March 28.
Elizabeth Joins Cursed
hannon Elizabeth (American Pie) has joined the cast of Dimension Films' upcoming horror film Cursed for director Wes Craven, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project begins shooting this week.
Cursed begins when a werewolf attack unites three strangers one night in Los Angeles, and they must fight for survival against the beast and its curse, the trade paper reported. Elizabeth will play Becky, a Hollywood clubgoer. Skeet Ulrich, Christina Ricci, Omar Epps, Scott Foley, Kristina Anapau, Scott Baio, James Brolin, Illeana Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Milo Ventimiglia and Corey Feldman round out the cast.
Kevin Williamson (Scream) wrote the screenplay, which is being produced by Williamson and Craven's longtime collaborator, Marianne Maddalena, the trade paper reported.
Fox Believes In Afterlife
ox has ordered the pilot presentation The Afterlife, a digitally animated project about a family that dies in a freak photography accident and winds up in purgatory, which looks a lot like suburban Los Angeles, Variety reported.
Barry Bostwick (Spin City) has been tapped to lend the voice for father Stan, while Kerri Kenney (The Ellen Show) will voice the neurotic family matriarch, Flo, the trade paper reported.
Also attached are Alexandra Holden (Ally McBeal) and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who will voice the children.
Threshold Entertainment's Larry Kasanoff will executive produce the project for his Threshold Digital Research Labs, which is also behind the upcoming full-length computer-animated feature film Foodfight, the trade paper reported. He also created the project, along with Joshua Wexler and writers David Schneiderman and Derek Guiley.
Carbon Gets Optioned
irst-time author Richard K. Morgan's SF novel Altered Carbon has become a hit in the United Kingdom and impressed producer Joel Silver (The Matrix) enough that he optioned the film rights, USA Today reported.
Warner Brothers has the project in development.
Altered Carbon is compared with Philip K. Dick and is set in the 25th century, when scientists have found a way to digitally distill a person's identity into data, the newspaper reported. Newborns are outfitted with a "stack," a lipstick-size data-storage device at the base of the brain's cortex, and the wealthy have their memories regularly saved and transmitted wirelessly to a backup copy so they can be refreshed.
A second book in what is envisioned as a series is due this month in the United Kingdom, ahead of a U.S. release next year, the newspaper reported.
Auburn Adapting Mare
ulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn has been hired to pen the English-language remake of the Korean time-travel film Il Mare for Warner Brothers, Variety reported.
Mare is a love story centering on a man and a woman who fall in love while separated in time by two years and correspond while trying to figure out a way to meet.
Auburn won the Pulitzer and Tony for his play Proof in 2001.
Brendon Fans Raise Charity Funds
ans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Nicholas Brendon (Xander) have set a goal of doubling annual gift for the Stuttering Foundation of America to $5,000, in honor of the actor's April 12 birthday.
Brendon serves as chairman of the foundation's Stuttering Awareness Week.
As Buffy ends this year, the fans set the charity goal as a thank-you for Brendon's seven years on the UPN series. Fans can donate to the foundation on the Web, by phone or by mail.
Dark Alliance II Coming
ivendi Universal Games and Interplay Entertainment announced the development of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, the sequel to the hit Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance video game.
Interplay's Black Isle Studios will develop the action role-playing game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox gaming systems, and Vivendi Universal Games will distribute, the companies announced.
Set in Dungeons & Dragons' Forgotten Realms world, Dark Alliance II will feature new monsters and environments and five new customizable player characters, the companies said.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is scheduled for release during the holidays.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Dunst Walks On Sunshine
irsten Dunst, who appears in the upcoming SF film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, told SCI FI Wire that the story blurs the line between comedy and tragedy.
The movie centers on a pair of lovers who want to erase their memories of each other. "It's kind of funny in that it's so weird, like you don't know if you should feel bad for these people or laugh," Dunst said in an interview. "It's that uncomfortable funny. It's just a weird funny. I saw one scene on playback that was really sad, but it was really comical too."
Dunst plays the secretary of the doctor who performs the memory-erasing procedure. She said the role is smaller than a lead, but important nonetheless. "It's like an ensemble movie," she said. "It's an amazing script and an amazing cast and an awesome director. It's so good, it's just one of the best scripts I've ever read."
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) and directed by French helmer Michel Gondry, stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Elijah Wood. It is in production at Focus Features.
Darabont Developing Mist
riter and director Frank Darabont told SCI FI Wire that he will work on an adaptation of Stephen King's novella "The Mist" after he finishes scripts for the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie and for Fahrenheit 451, based on Ray Bradbury's classic SF novel.
Darabont's relationship with King—stemming from his work directing the King film adaptations The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile—helped him gain King's blessing for the project, he said.
"He's always given me a very free hand [with his stories], which is really lovely," Darabont said in an interview. "Based on how it's gone before, I write the script, I [send] it to him, he reads it, and he says, 'Great, good luck.' And off I go. We've become really good pals. He's a great guy."
Darabont said that he is still at work on Indy IV and that Fahrenheit will take another three months to write after Indy is finished. He plans to direct Fahrenheit as well, but hopes to write Mist before the end of 2003.
Affleck Looks To Tomorrow
asey Affleck has joined the cast of The World of Tomorrow, an independently financed SF thriller film that also stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, Variety reported.
The movie is described as a retro SF action movie, about a reporter (Paltrow) and pilot (Law) who go on an adventure just before the start of World War II.
Affleck will play Dex, a tech genius and right-hand man to Law's aviator hero, the trade paper reported. Giovanni Ribisi had been in negotiations for the role.
Kerry Conran makes his directorial debut on Tomorrow, which he also wrote. Production begins this month in London.
Spirited Wins Toon Oscar
pirited Away, the animated movie from Japanese director Hayao
Miyazaki, took home the Oscar for best animated feature film at the 75th Academy Awards, presented in Hollywood on March 23.
In only the second year of the category, Spirited Away became the first traditionally animated movie to win the award. The computer-animated Shrek won the first such Oscar last year.
The only other genre Oscars of the evening went to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which won trophies for best visual effects and for best sound editing.
Jades Wins Crawford Award
lexander C. Irvine's novel A Scattering of Jades won this year's William L. Crawford/IAFA Fantasy Award for outstanding new fantasy writer, the Locus Online Web site reported.
The award has been presented annually since 1985.
The announcement was made during the March 21 weekend at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the site reported.
Clones Gets Razzed
adonna was named worst supporting actress for her role in Die Another Day and Roberto Benigni was named worst actor for Pinocchio in the tongue-in-cheek Razzie awards for worst cinema, the Zap2it Web site reported.
Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, meanwhile, nabbed two Razzies.
Hayden Christensen was named worst supporting actor and George Lucas and Jonathan Hales were singled out for worst screenplay, the site reported.
Briefly Noted
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Paramount and DreamWorks have agreed to co-finance the remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, marking the fourth such partnership between the studios in recent months, Variety reported. The pair reached similar pacts for Paycheck, Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and Killing Pablo.
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The American Museum of the Moving Image will usher in the release of the movie The Hulk with a retrospective of the work of director Ang Lee, Variety reported. The museum will host an advance screening of The Hulk on June 19, the day before its national release.
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The Charisma-Carpenter.com fan site reported that the Angel star gave birth to a baby boy, Donovan Charles Hardy, on March 24 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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The MI6 Web site reported that a 21st James Bond movie is targeted for a November or December 2004 release.
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The world premiere of A Wrinkle in Time, a film based on Madeleine L'Engle's beloved children's book, will kick off the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, April 25 to May 4, Variety reported. John Kent Harrison directed the movie, about kids on a quest to rescue a physicist and his friend whose experiment with time travel has gone wrong.
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Movielink will offer the 1999 supernatural horror film The Ninth Gate on its Internet-based service, Variety reported.
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ABC has placed its supernatural series Veritas: The Quest on indefinite hiatus, TV Guide Online reported.
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The WB's vampire series Angel wasn't on the list of six series just renewed by the network for next year, TV Guide Online reported. The network is expected to make a decision on Angel in May.
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DC Comics unveiled a new Wonder Woman, featuring short, spiky hair and a camouflage bustier, on March 26, TV Guide Online reported.
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PeopleNews reported a rumor that Judi Dench and Kate Winslet will provide voices for Gnomeo and Juliet, an animated film about garden gnomes from Disney and Rocket Pictures, the production company of Elton John and David Furnish.
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TNN launched iTrek Live, an interactive viewing experience for reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation, starting March 31. Powered by GoldPocket Interactive's EventMatrix technology, viewers will be able to play a Trek-related game in real time through their set-top boxes and Internet-connected computers.
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The BBC has posted a report about various rumors concerning a new Doctor Who production.
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Bloody-Disgusting.com has posted what it says are spoilers for the upcoming Freddy vs. Jason movie.
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TNN has struck a deal with MGM for the broadcast rights to three James Bond movies: The World Is Not Enough, available in November, and License to Kill and A View to a Kill, both available in 2004, Variety reported.
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Angelina Jolie, who stars in the upcoming sequel film Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, will also be featured in character in an upcoming promotional campaign for Jeep Wrangler, Variety reported.
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